Mistaken Identity
by RogueKraytDragon
Summary: Felicia mysteriously finds herself at Hotel Richissime, a place very different from the castle. As luck would have it, things do not go well…


**A/N: Hey there! Because I had a silly idea recently, I decided to write this short story featuring perhaps my favorite character from Fire Emblem Fates: everyone's favorite maid, Felicia! Enjoy the shenanigans!**

* * *

"Oof!"

Felicia tumbled to the ground, her face squashing into the carpet and her arms and legs sprawling across the floor.

 _Oh, what did I trip over this time?_ she thought, picking herself up from the carpet. After dusting herself off, she habitually reached down to pick up whatever she had dropped before realizing that she had not been carrying anything. Looking up, her face contorted in an expression of bewilderment.

"Wait a minute… Where am I?!" she said aloud.

Felicia spun around, taking in surroundings that contrasted wildly with her expectations. She fully expected to see the familiar warm glow of the castle hallway, if not a comrade looking down at her, hands on hips.

Instead, Felicia found herself in a grand lobby. Great marble pillars supported the ceiling of the cavernous room. The reflective tile floor was partially covered by an ornate navy carpet that led right up to a sleek stone service desk, behind which several people spoke rapidly into rotary dial telephones. People in stylish, lavish outfits walked by constantly, adding to the already bustling atmosphere. Some of these people were even accompanied by strange creatures that looked like animal companions.

"Wha-" A sound of confusion escaped Felicia's mouth. For a minute all she could do was stare. Then, she was abruptly shaken out of her trance by a shout from behind.

"You there!"

Felicia jumped and whirled around. Steadily making his way towards her was a very tall and very angry-looking butler. Felicia quickly looked to her left and right, but there were no other people close to her. A bead of sweat fell from Felicia's brow as she realized that the cross butler had clearly shouted at her.

"What on earth could you possibly be doing right now?!" asked the butler as he approached, towering over Felicia by several feet. "Now is no time for idle daydreams! We have a hotel to run!"

His eyes narrowed as bent over to examine Felicia. "What is your current task? I certainly hope that you were not gazing at your reflection in the floor!"

Felicia, still trying to process her situation, remained silent.

"Well?!" the butler demanded impatiently.

"Um…ah…" was all that Felicia could muster.

The butler huffed. "Well, this will not do at all! We shall find you a supervised task instead!"

He curtly clasped Felicia's shoulder to lead her along. "But I don't-" Felicia started to say, but was whisked away before she could finish. Shortly, they reached the service desk at the far end of the lobby.

A maid at the desk was speaking into a phone as they approached. "Hotel Richissime, how may we help you?" After a few "yesses" and "nos" followed by a "thank you," she put the telephone back in its cradle, turning to face the approaching pair.

"Excuse me!" the butler said, still irritated. "Please assign this maid a task. She needs to be supervised. I cannot afford be bothered with discipline! We need all hands to be busy!"

With that, the butler did an about-face and strode in the direction from whence he came.

"Sheesh," said the maid. "He's a grouchy old bird, that one. What did he get mad at you for?"

The maid gave Felicia a once-over. "Was it your outfit? Gosh, that's more stylish than anything that I can wear… what's your name?"

"I'm Felicia," she replied. "but, you see, I don't actually work here. In fact, I'm not actually sure where I am…"

"You don't know?" asked the maid quizzically. "This is the finest hotel in all of Kalos: Hotel Richissime!"

She leaned over the counter to whisper to Felicia. "Geosenge Town likes to brag about their hotel being the best because of tourism, but we all know that they're just blowing smoke."

None of what the maid said made any sort of sense to Felicia, but she thought that it would be best to go along with the conversation, so she nodded in agreement. "You're definitely right," she said with a noticeable lack of confidence.

The maid leaned back over her desk. "Say, I don't know how you ended up here, but do you think you could help us out? We've got a lot of guests today and all of our staff is running around like crazy. Room service and housekeeping both need help."

She smiled at Felicia. "You definitely look the part. I'll bet you're a natural!"

Felicia frowned. She was still unsure of how she ended up in this strange place, but she knew she wouldn't figure it out just standing around. After all, the angry butler might come back to scold her again…

Even in this alien environment, it appeared as though there were maids everywhere. And, even if everything else made little sense, Felicia knew how to be a maid.

She smiled up at the maid. "You can count on me!" she said.

"Good to hear!" replied the maid. "Let's see how room service is doing."

She waved at a desk on the other side of the room. Suddenly, Felicia didn't feel as confident. Room service couldn't be _that_ hard, right?

…Right?

* * *

Felicia soon found herself behind the room service counter as a man in an apron tried to explain. "What I really need help with is taking orders. Guests will call down to the desk to ask for different dishes, and we need to make sure that we make the orders right. Then, you'll need to deliver the meal to the right room."

Felicia pointed hesitantly at the foreign telephone object. "So I should listen to the voices…that come out of that? Is that everything?"

The apron-clad man raised an eyebrow. "Yeah…" he replied, confused.

Felicia breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment she was afraid that they would be asking her to cook. She shuddered at the thought of having to deliver a charred mess of a meal.

Felicia smiled in a way that she hoped was reassuring. Just then, the phone rang. Felicia jumped in surprise, then fumbled to answer it.

"Hello, might this be room service?" came a distinguished voice from the phone.

"Y-yes," answered Felicia hesitantly.

"I feel particularly weary today. Could you deliver a Rawst berry salad, Surf style, glazed with Cheri to room 28 on the second floor?"

"Um…yes…" answered Felicia, her brow furrowed.

"My appreciations," answered the voice.

Felicia relayed the order to the man at the counter. Despite her unfamiliarity with the dish, she was able to remember the order without a hitch.

 _Ha!_ she thought. _I've got this!_

A few minutes later, Felicia was handed a gleaming silver platter so reflective that she could see her own face staring back at her. She immediately felt self-conscious again seeing her own expression.

 _At least there isn't a drink to spill…_ she thought. She shook her head, trying to dispel the idea. _No! Bad Felicia! You can do this! It's just one flight of stairs, not a mountain or anything!_

Felicia took the platter. It was light and easy to carry, fitting nicely in her hands. She then began to walk carefully towards the stairs, which seemed to become further away with each approaching step. Every few seconds, Felicia would glance at her feet, as if to make sure that they were definitely in working order.

After what felt like hours, she finally reached the stairs. She climbed delicately, as though preparing to tread amongst broken glass.

 _What are you scared of Felicia?! Stairs are stairs! It doesn't matter if they're at home or in an alternate dimension._

Gradually, she picked up her pace, watching the platter constantly. So focused was she that the platter was perfectly balanced. Of course, Felicia couldn't have realized, but not even gelatin would have wobbled in her rigid grip. Before she knew it, Felicia reached the door marked "28" in gold lettering. Quickly, she knocked on the door.

An elderly gentleman sporting a white mustache and a brown suit answered the door. He smiled. "Ah, you must be from room service."

"That's right!" Felicia replied. She lifted the dome from the platter in one smooth motion. The food underneath certainly looked appetizing…

"Thank you very much," said the gentleman, taking the platter from Felicia. "I must say, I'm quite famished."

Felicia let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding as the platter left her hands. "My pleasure!" was her automatic reply. She started to turned on her heel-

-And her toe caught the threshold of the door.

Her eyes grew wide as she realized that there was no way to stop her inevitable fall. Instinctively, she reached out, grasping for a handhold, only for her wrist to catch on the platter, tossing the artistically crafted salad high into the air. Time seemed to slow to a crawl, contained in a single moment of chaos. Then, Felicia and the salad hit the carpet. What had been a maid with a meal seconds before had become a klutz with a mess.

Frantic, Felicia scrambled to pick up the salad. Thankfully, there had been only light dressing on the salad, and it was relatively easy to clean up. But, no matter how well Felicia could recover from her blunder, the damage had already been done.

"Well!" retorted the gentlemen, clearly irritated. "If I had known to expect this type of service, I would have walked to the kitchens and made my own food!"

"I'm _so_ sorry!" said Felicia desperately, picking herself off of the floor. "I'll go make sure you get a fresh dish right away!"

She snatched up the platter as she walked briskly through the door, careful not to trip a second time. Halfway down the hall, she winced as she heard the door slam.

 _Oh, what a mess!_ Felicia thought to herself woefully. _And I was so close to everything working out fine!_

Frowning, she started down the stairs towards the lobby. She was so distracted that she collided with another person climbing up the stairs, only just catching herself to avoid dropping the platter.

"Oh my apologies!" she exclaimed, looking up…only to find herself face-to-face with the angry butler himself.

"Ah!" Felicia jumped. The butler loomed over her, a disapproving glance already forming on his face.

"I specifically told them to give you a supervised task!" he scoffed. "Well, no matter. This time, you are coming with me!"

"But I have to-" Felicia tried to protest as the butler forcefully grabbed the platter from her with one hand and her dragged her wrist along with the other. Her attempts at clarifying the situation had no effect. The butler seemed to have a single-minded resolve to place her in what she anticipated to be another disaster.

This time, Felicia found herself on the third floor. At first glance, this floor was significantly less chaotic than other parts of the hotel. But upon closer inspection, Felicia could see hotel staff scurrying around.

The butler dragged to the very center of the floor before releasing her wrist.

"Very distinguished guests just checked out a few minutes ago, and now this floor is mostly empty," he said, dusting off his coat. "We are running a very tight schedule. More guests will be checking in within the next ten minutes. You will make all of the beds on this floor within seventy-five seconds."

"Seventy-five seconds?!" Felicia exclaimed, shocked.

"Yes!" the cross butler replied. "You must get started immediately! Other maids are waiting on you!"

Years of training caused Felicia to instinctively rush into action, almost before the butler had finished his sentence. She turned the corner of the first hall, but was forced to come to a halt to avoid crashing into another maid.

"Oops! Don't mind me, I'm just dusting."

Despite her urgency, Felicia could only stop and stare. There were two more maids in the hall, and all of them appeared to be walking back and forth from wall to wall with a feather duster in hand, almost as though they were designed to be obstacles.

 _How am I supposed to accomplish this in time?_ Felicia thought, exchanging "excuse me" as she wove through the other maids.

The bed in the first room was a disheveled mess. Felicia fixed the sheets as best as she could before moving on to the next room, the ludicrous time limit etched into her brain. Along the way she almost ran into more of the cleaning crew and just barely saved an ornate decorative pot that she had almost knocked off an unfortunately placed dresser in the hall.

By the time she was finished, her breathing was ragged. She walked up to the butler. His face, if at all possible, seemed even more irritated.

"You were _two minutes_ behind schedule!" he fumed. Felicia could almost see smoke coming out of his ears. "You are lucky we are short staffed, because I could almost certainly find a better worker amongst the common riff-raff of Trainers! I assume I will have to settle for your mediocre services on the second floor as well!"

Felicia's eyes widened even further. She didn't know if she could handle any more, and she wasn't any closer to finding out why she was at the hotel in the first place. Maybe she could lose the butler…

"I'd better get a head start, then!" she said, putting on a forced smile. She turned towards the stairs and started down, taking two at a time. Soon, she reached the lobby once again. Standing in front of the room service desk was the gentleman from room 28. This time, he was wearing a felt hat and carrying a briefcase. Standing next to him was one of those creatures Felicia had seen earlier. It was blue and yellow in color, resembling a canine of some sort.

The creature saw Felicia and let out a noise that sounded similar to a howl. The gentleman turned around. "That's her!" he exclaimed. "That's the maid that spilled my salad! Is this the quality of service I'm to expect from this hotel?"

Then, his face changed from one of anger to one of puzzlement. He appeared to be looking at something behind Felicia. Her first thought was that the angry butler had managed to catch up to her. In a moment of panic, she whirled to look behind. Then, she became confused as well. A person was approaching, but it wasn't the butler. In fact, the person sported an outfit so loud in color that it stood out significantly from the other hotel patrons. Everything about the man was red: his suit, his sunglasses, and even his hair.

In became clear as he strolled by Felicia that he was interested in the gentleman.

"Say, old man, are you interested in joining Team Flare?" he asked.

"Team Flare?" asked the gentleman. "What in the blazes is that?"

"Oh, we're just trying to make the world better," the man replied. He glanced down at the creature. "We could sure use a seasoned Pokémon veteran such as yourself."

The gentleman hesitated, skeptical. "I must decline your offer," he said finally.

"Oh, that's too bad," replied the red-suited man. "Looks like we'll just have to find something else to power our revolution."

Then, without warning, he produced a net from inside his suit and threw it over the creature, scooping it up with one smooth motion. He started running in the direction of the lobby doors.

"You!" shouted the gentlemen, his arm outstretched. "Stop!"

Felicia could clearly see that the situation was trouble. Without stopping to think, she started after the red suit. He glanced backward, and, seeing that he was being pursued, started to duck into a hallway offset from the main lobby. Felicia didn't wait for him to turn the corner. Her eyes narrowed in determination. Pulling a dagger from her uniform, she hurled it at the man with a loud "hyah!"

The man let out a howl of pain as Felicia's dagger hit his leg, just above the foot. Tumbling to the ground, the net with the creature inside flew from his hands. The gentleman came running and undid the net. Felicia, not one to lose a weapon, pulled her dagger from the man's leg, prompting another yell of pain. Incapacitated, there was no way he would be standing up.

* * *

A few minutes later, blue-uniformed officers arrived to take the red-suited man into custody. One of the officers looked at the man's leg wound, muttering something about how uncommon it was.

Still in a bit of shock, the gentleman walked up to Felicia.

"You saved my Manectric," he said. "Thank you."

"My pleasure," replied Felicia. "I'm just glad I was able to do _something_ right."

She breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe she had messed up trying to be a maid, but being able to protect someone almost made up for it.

"Felicia!" came a sudden shout. Felicia looked around and saw that the surprises of the day weren't over.

"Flora?! How did you get here?"

"Oh, Felicia. That's what I was going to ask you," her sister replied. "Lord Corrin noticed you'd been missing for a while, and thought you might have gotten lost. Then, I stumbled across this portal…"

Her brow furrowed. "Why do strange portals keep appearing in the castle?"

"YOU THERE! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!"

The angry butler had finally caught up with Felicia. This time, he looked furious.

"Flora? How about we get back to the castle?"

It only took one look at the butler for Flora to nod in agreement. "I think that's probably for the best."

With that, the two sisters dashed away, leaving a sputtering butler in their wake.


End file.
